Art and Comedy Event: Peace-Building with Laughter

Please join us on Saturday, September 6, 2025 (3:30-5:30pm), for the "Art and Comedy Event: Peace-Building with Laughter" at the KODA House in Governors Island, produced and curated by the artist Mina Cheon and with a global lineup of the most intelligent-funny standup comedians of New York and LA – the lovable Jonah Bowen, Bangladeshi Naveed Mahbub, Egyptian-American Eman Morgan, and Korean-American Peter S. Kim. Hosted by MJ, a standup Korean, this is the artist Cheon’s debut as a comedian to the art world after months of training as a standup comedian and learning from the inspiring and established comedians listed. And, as a treat, prior to the feature show, a special lineup of New York’s most talented emerging and active comedians will open the event, including comedians Alex Kim, John Bent, Ryan Chazie, Yatin, and Adam Thomas. At the KODA House and the haunted house of Koreas, it's a beauty pageant of comedians and their transformative power of healing through laughter, with storytelling on conflict, resolution, politics, peace, and love in some generously funny way.

• This is a ticketed event; all proceeds will go to the comedians who made this event possible. Seats are limited, and the show starts at 3:30 pm. The exhibition is open to the public from 11:00 am.
• Press pass is available with reservation - please contact: Zoe Perlis [email protected]
• The Art and Comedy Event is sponsored by Hanna Makgeolli

About the featured comedians:

Jonah Bowen is a General Manager at Stand Up NY, a beloved standup comedian, and a leader of the comedy world and industry in New York. He graduated from Emerson College with a BFA in Comedic Arts and has been mentoring interns from Emerson ever since at Stand Up NY. He is the host of the weekly open mics "Let's Go Mental" at Hotel Edison and "Rush Hour Comedy" at Zeam Studios, which broadcasts live comedy from Times Square; both co-sponsored by Stand Up NY. This summer, he appeared as a guest comic as one of the funny Jewish boyzz for Talia Reese at Rodney's Comedy Club in New York, the UG Comedy Show, and he performs regularly at Stand Up NY House Shows in Times Square.

Naveed Mahbub, an engineer turned CEO turned comedian (by choice!), is a Bangladeshi comedian and columnist who created one of Asia's first comedy clubs, "Naveed Comedy Club (NCC)" in Dhaka. He was awarded Best Male Comedian in the 2007 Las Vegas Comedy Festival. In 2016, Mahbub was featured on the US-based comedy television channel Comedy Central. He hosts the morning radio show "Good Morning Bangladesh" on ABC Radio. He writes articles for the newspaper "The Daily Star." Re-transporting himself to New York recently, he has brought the house down across comedy clubs in New York, appearing in "South Asian Comedy Laughing Lassi," "NY Tech Week 2025" of Broadway Comedy Club, and headlining at Stand Up NY.

Eman Morgan is a New York City–based Egyptian-American comedian and actor. Originally from Los Angeles, he moved to New York to reach broader audiences—a move that helped establish him as one of the leading Middle Eastern comedians today. Known for his vibrant, high-energy performances, Eman has toured nationally and internationally, performing in both English and Arabic. He has headlined the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival for 12 consecutive years and has been featured on platforms like Funny or Die and Showtime. When he’s not on stage or writing, Eman enjoys spending time with his family in Los Angeles, staying active, and exploring new places.

Peter S. Kim is a writer, comedian, and actor who has been lauded for his role as Paul in the critically acclaimed comedy "A Nice Indian Boy." Named JFL's New Face of Comedy, Peter is also a series regular on the satirical animated comedy "Fairfax" (Amazon) and can be seen on "Shrinking" (Apple TV+), "Frasier" (Paramount +), "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (HBO), "Yes Day" (Netflix) and "Spies in Disguise" (Disney+). As a screenwriter, he staffed on the latest two seasons of "HouseBroken" (FOX) and has pitched and developed his original comedy pilots with ABC, FOX, NBC, Comedy Central, CBS Studios, and Disney Channel. His set includes an unapologetic portrayal of the Korean American experience, and he runs a two queer Korean comedians' "2 Kims 1 Pod" Ajumma show with fellow comedian Eunji Kim.

MJ, a standup Korean (stage name of artist Mina Cheon), has been hitting the open mics and show spots in New York since April, a regular at the "Let's Go Mental" free open mic cosponsored by Guber Jokes (guberjokes.com) and Standup NY supporting mental health hotline, ‘988 Lifeline.' Her show spots have been at Eastville and The Stand comedy clubs in New York. She performed at the Industry Room Showcase at the Broadway Comedy Club and received a guest spot at their house show, performed a guest spot at the Grisly Pear, Laughing Buddha Comedy, and she curated and hosted the “Echo Mic” at the Westside Comedy Club, a curated open mic show. While training in standup comedy, she has received guidance, coaching, and mentorship from the comedians listed above and has been welcomed into the comedy community, thanks to the many incredible comedians of New York.

About the Exhibition

"Art and Comedy Event: Peace-Building with Laughter" coincides the solo exhibition of Korean new media artist Mina Cheon, "Haunted Koreas: Mina Cheon Retrospective 2005-2025" (August 30 - September 28, 2025) at KODA in New York. The survey show is a distinctive curation of her art known as "Polipop," inspired by pop art and social realism, churned political pop art. The selected works span her art career as an art activist and human rights advocate, from early works to recent art activism, new media, and installation, as well as an extensive collection of Cheon's series of "Dreaming Unification Protest Peace" paintings, offering a new perspective on the flags of a unified One Korea. Each of these paintings, born from the artist's stream of unconsciousness along with her counterpart North Korean art persona "Kim Il Soon," is a powerful peace protest, shedding light on the intricacies of communication, love, and a shared vision of a harmonious future for Haunted Koreas. The call for unification within the Koreas is a concerted effort to desire peace on earth, for dreaming global peace is about healing and reconciliation of tempered worlds divided.

"Peace is expensive. War is lucrative. Artists are peace makers. Comedians are truth sayers."

*Conflict *Resolution *Politics *Peace *Love

Host or Publisher KODA